101 Faces - 17

I'm now, inevitably, finding I could go on and on after worrying that I wouldn't reach 101. Here are 81 to 85

VITALI KLITSCHKO

The image of him standing in the Ukrainian parliament on his first day, watching bemused as a mad mass brawl kicked off. This Klitschko was just about the most fearsome man alive – champion of kickboxing then heavyweight boxing, never put down, never really beaten. All Schwarzenegger's idealised characters made flesh, but smarter and better and with a slightly chattier, showier, slightly more fragile younger brother. 

And now he’s mayor of Kiev. Which is a frightening thing to be. I actually think hugely successful sportspeople with a drive for good might be rather suited to precarious political roles - there are plenty of test cases at the moment.

SALLY RIDE

All you’ve got to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally Ride. That's my joke. Isn't it hilarious. There always seems to be so much melancholy associated with space travel. A triumph and a tragedy just waiting to happen. Here's a song about her, loosely by ...

JANELLE MONAE

Because she is aspiring to be just the greatest thing in the world, she's really really someone out on her own, and she's already been in some great films, and made utterly amazing music, and it doesn't always work, but you wouldn't be surprised if she came up with the most amazing thing ever one day.

NICHOLAS WINTON

Amongst other things I noticed about Nicholas Winton when looking this up is that he was at school with David Niven (another hero of World War II, in a different way.)

There's little I can add to the sheer magnificence of this life. Heroism, true heroism, is not something I (most of us?) spend most of our life aspiring to, it seems oddly impossible or circumstantial or something. It's quite shocking to be confronted by it, this careful, quiet heroism.

ETHAN HAWKE

I'm just watching Ethan Hawke interviews at the moment - he's so pleasant and smart, I'm sure there's a catch somewhere. Anyway, he's Cusack for a slightly later generation. Quite hard to describe what makes them so much better than the rest. I wrote about him in more depth elsewhere actually , which slightly defeats the point, but there it is ...